


The Last Dwarf

by riotgrrrlz



Category: Dwarf Fortress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 00:54:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21608677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riotgrrrlz/pseuds/riotgrrrlz
Summary: A story about insanity, miasma, and cats.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	The Last Dwarf

A heavy purple mist engulfs the decadent dining hall of The Hollow Abbey. The Last Remaining Dwarf awakes to find the hall filled with miasma. He can barely see his own hands through the purple haze. He stands there for what seems like hours as he tries to stare past the screen of decay between him and the floor. His eyes find a gap in the mist which reveal another sign of death, a thin layer of blood covering the jewel encrusted floor. The thought of standing in some unknown creatures’ blood was less disturbing to the Last Dwarf than the stench of miasma surrounding him. This dwarf had no memory of how he got to the dining hall, where the miasma came from, or even his own identity; what he did remember was his husband Ongot Onol or Ono for short. 

Ono had been a military commander, but that was before they migrated to Hollow Abbey so they could be free from necromancer attacks and be around more queer dwarves; one of the nobles of Hollow Abbey was a lesbian. While standing in the putrid mist the Unfortunate Dwarf became overwhelmed by a memory of his husband crying after defending their home fortress for the last time. The Last Dwarf did not think he had ever been to war; he remembered the sorrow he felt for his husband but also how he could never truly understand Ono’s pain. When they left for Hollow Abbey Ono told him, “seeing goblins dropped into pits of spikes, feeling elves skulls collapse under the weight of my hammer, even dropping the bodies into the magma pits, and any other horrors I can’t bring myself to tell you all seem like happy memories when I remember being trapped with my squad in a cloud of miasma. We were raiding an elvish fortress and had fallen through a trapdoor into their refuse. Animal carcasses and dead dwarves, nothing I had not seen before, were piled up under chutes. I was scared I would not see you again, but I was terrified of the purple mist surrounding us. Me and my squad became disturbed by the stench and saw no way out. The mist was inescapable, it saturated our clothes and made it seem as if there was a purple film over our eyes. Do you remember that leather notebook you made me? It got me through it, I gripped it as hard as I could so I would remember you and not lose myself. After we escaped, I wept while burning it and lied to you about having dropped it crossing a river. I don’t know why I’m telling you all this now, it just feels like the time because I’m asking you to run away from the only home we’ve ever known. Alak was the first one of us to crack. No one believes me but I swear both of his eyes turned a sickly purple the moment he lost himself to the mist. One by one the party forgot who they were. They began screaming at each other, convinced that they were elves and everyone else was an enemy dwarf. Somehow, I managed to knock all four of them unconscious before they began killing each other and maintained my sanity until Orok saved us. I will never forget that. I am supposed to embark again in a week, but I can’t go back to that and the nobles won’t let me resign. I have to run. Please come with me I can’t do it without you. I just want to be a simple craftsdwarf like you.”

So, he was a craftsdwarf. It wasn’t much but if he found his workshop, he might remember the rest. He leaves the purple room, being sure to close the door behind him, and goes to look through the workshops. He has no idea how he would tell which shop is his, but he is sure he can remember. Eventually he finds a workshop with a familiar looking leather-bound notebook. It is one of the matching journals he made for him and Ono, the one Ono had burned. His workshop is in the far-left corner of a plain room with stone walls and a dirt floor. It is a humble shop with one stool, a bench, various tools for working with leather, and a large pile of unusual looking tanned hides. To the left of the door there is a tanner shop, and to the right there is a butcher’s shop. There are also two doors that the last dwarf assumes are stockpiles to supply the shops. The Last Dwarf cannot shake the feeling that there is something strange about this room. He inspects the unusual hides on his bench and cannot not tell which kind of animal it came from. Next, he examines the two other workshops and is shocked to find that the hides came from cats. The unfortunate dwarf loves cats and remembered that Ono had given him a kitten to celebrate their arrival at Hollow Abbey. Visibly shaking the last dwarf fingers through the skins on the tanner’s workbench until he finds the skin of his own kitten. The last dwarf wants to stop his search and mourn but the memory of Ono makes him desperate to remember his own identity. He decides to continue searching and mourn later. He notices a second stockpile behind the butcher shop and is filled with anxiety about what might be inside. He fears it might be an empty room or that the stockpile is filled with miasma from butchered animals. What he finds is much worse. The room is filled from floor to ceiling with cages. Each cage is stuffed with unfamiliar cats. On the far side of the cramped jail there is a small cloud of miasma. The last dwarf is terrified, but he needs to know what happened; he slowly steps into the miasma. Ono lays on the floor holding the key to the jail with leather scissors piercing his heart. A few moments later the Unfortunate Dwarf runs out of the workshop and back into the dining hall. He sits on the floor allowing the miasma to consume him until he falls unconscious on the floor.

A heavy purple mist engulfs the decadent dining hall of Hollow Abbey. The last remaining Dwarf awakes to find the hall filled with miasma. He can barely see his own hands through the purple haze. He stands there for what seems like hours, trying to stare past the screen of decay between him and the floor. His eyes find a gap in the mist which reveals another sign of death; a thin layer of blood covering the jewel encrusted floor. The thought of standing in some unknown creatures’ blood was less disturbing to the last remaining dwarf than the stench of miasma surrounding him. This dwarf had no memory of how he got to the dining hall, where the miasma came from, or even his own identity; what he did remember was his husband Ongot Onol or Ono for short.


End file.
